Do you want justice? Get government out of the police business.

Throughout modern history it seems that the first thing a society does as it is being formed is to establish a central, compulsory (through taxes) "Monopoly of Defense".  In other words, the first thing Dodge City did was hire a Town Marshall.

The business of policing the growing country was very much a local and State affair.  Only with the establishment of the FBI were federal agents granted police power (except for very narrowly defined jurisdictions like border control and customs).

In the 100 years or so since then, the federal government has grown into a many-tentacled beast, running roughshod over state and local laws and jurisdictions, and ruthlessly militarizing, training and bribing local law enforcement until they are for all practical purposes, accountable not to those they are hired to protect and serve, but to the national agenda.

The result?  We now incarcerate a higher percentage of our population than any other country in the world, we have ruthlessly created a permanent underclass of people branded as felons for life, and our families and communities bear the dual burdens of both paying for it in taxes and having to fear their own police every time they leave their homes.

If you want to see what getting the federal government involved in making and enforcing criminal law, look at this graph.  When the feds began to lobby and force new laws into existence and mold local law enforcement policies during the expansion of the "War on Drugs", everything changed.  Just look at this graph:

It becomes painfully clear that the problem isn't the war on drugs, it isn't the war on terror or any other specific policy that has caused this terrible rise and made America into the world's leading nation in terms of incarceration and punishment - it is the rise of federal influence in law enforcement.

Do you want justice?  Do you want to secure a future of freedom and liberty for the generations that follow? We have to get the federal government out of the business of writing and forcing into place state and local laws, enforcing the law except under very tightly controlled circumstances, and manipulating law enforcement at the local and state level.

Haven't we suffered enough to make this obvious?

Life imitates Art - Urban Hunters roaming Detroit for Food

Years ago I ran across this youtube video that I thought was an absolute hoot.  A couple of intrepid hunters exploring the bounty of a major American city:

Then just a little while ago I ran across THIS guy.  Meet Mr. Beasley:

 Detroit - "When selecting the best raccoon carcass for the special holiday roast, both the connoisseur and the curious should remember this simple guideline: Look for the paw.

"The paw is old school," says Glemie Dean Beasley, a Detroit raccoon hunter and meat salesman. "It lets the customers know it's not a cat or dog."

Read the complete article from The Detroit News by clicking HERE.

It all reminds me of a great little promotional video for Cleveland, Ohio.  It extolls the many (if questionable) virtues of living on the mighty Cuyahoga river - and ends with the motto:  "At Least We Aren't Detroit.

It is hilarious precisely because it is so true.  'Murica!

Needed: A "Fair Witness"

Fair Witness is a fictional profession invented by Robert Heinlein.  (Stranger in a Strange Land)

A Fair Witness is an individual trained to observe events and report exactly what he or she sees and hears, making no extrapolations or assumptions. An eidetic memory is a prerequisite for the job, although this may be attainable with suitable training.

In Heinlein's society, a Fair Witness is a highly reputable source of information. By custom, a Fair Witness acting professionally, generally wearing distinctive white robes, is never addressed directly, and is never acknowledged by anyone present.

While Fair Witnesses may hold jobs, at all times they must honor the traditions of the Fair Witness and do their best to avoid any possibility of bias when wearing the robes and repeating the truth of what they have seen, done or heard.  

Fair Witnesses are prohibited from drawing conclusions about what they observe. As a demonstration, in the novel a Fair Witness was asked to describe the color of a house in the distance. She responds, "It's white on this side"; whereupon Heinlein explains that she would not assume knowledge of the color of the other sides of the house without being able to see them. Furthermore, after observing another side of the house she would not then assume that any previously seen side was still the same color as last reported, even if only minutes before.

Here is an excellent article about what the future may hold   simply due to technology.  Imagine if an entire profession of qualified, independent observers were to rise up to provide accountability everywhere from Fukushima to your back yard.

Think of it - people who simply will not lie, cutting through the fog of spin and disinformation..  I want to see a future like that.